More NC firms drop health insurance for workers as costs soar

[WorseBeforeBetter]

The portion of North Carolinians under age 65 with employer-sponsored insurance declined from 69 percent in 2000 to 56 percent in 2011, according to the report released Thursday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That change left 220,000 fewer residents with health insurance. Only four states had a larger percentage drop.

....

Part of the problem is the spiraling cost of hospital care. A report published last month in the American Journal of Managed Care found that inpatient hospital prices nationwide increased 8.2 percent per year from 2008 to 2010 – far faster than inflation.

An investigation last year by The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer found that urban hospitals were piling up large profits, often inflating prices on drugs and procedures as much as 10 times over cost. The investigation found that hospital consolidations and the acquisition of physician practices enables them to negotiate higher payments from insurance companies.

The recession also played a major role in reducing access to employer-sponsored insurance. Throughout the downturn, North Carolina suffered one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates, still at 9.4 percent as of February.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/04/11/2816888/more-nc-firms-drop-health-insurance.html#storylink=cpy

[arcane1]

1. Those two words, "consolidation" and "acquisition" seem to become more evil every day

[WorseBeforeBetter]

2. Yep. Things really seem to be spinning out of control.

NC has 9.4% unemployment, fewer insured, no Medicaid expansion, and now... proposed cuts to Social Security.

[Triana]

3. "urban hospitals were piling up large profits"

That's what happens when people must rely on a for-profit "healthcare" system. Until and unless this is taken care of, healthcare costs will continue to soar. They can cut Medicare to nothing but that won't fix the problem. The problem is GREED and parasitic preying on the vulnerable injured, elderly and sick for profit. It's immoral.